A Phronesis Project

Be Open-minded. Be Orange

Posted March 21st, 2013 by floresf

There all kinds of different people that make up the OSU community. All these different cultures and backgrounds give us different points of view. Most of these views we cannot understand because we have only seen life through our own eyes. When someone here’s Be Orange I want them to associate it with open-mindedness and respect.

To be open-minded you have to be compassionate, understanding, and engaging. You also have to be willing to put yourself out there among other strangers of your community. We have an obligation to our community to get to know those around us. Get to know those around us so that we can listen to new ideas and ways of looking at life. These experiences will open up our eyes and help us notice all the ethical skills we may or may not have.

An open-minded person will listen to whomever they are talking to and engage in a conversation. They care about what the other person has to say. They ask questions when they have them, they never hold back. They apply emotions to their conversations so that the other person feels engaged with you. Being open-minded takes a while to develop in this community I would say you’re orange after returning from your 1st year. If you come back you’re orange. And know you represent something that is not just your top priority but others as well. When someone says they attended Oregon State University it should automatically turn the light bulb on in someone else’s head. They should associate all these great things I’ve been talking about with your degree.

Someone who is not Orange or not open-minded is an individual who is selfish in all his decisions and thinking. This type of person believes that there way of thinking is the best way and any other way means nothing to him/her. For example at the beginning of this class some of us in the class were frustrated due to the fact that we weren’t open-minded to this way of teaching. I don’t know how my peers felt but I thought that this way of learning and teaching allows students to think on their own. Being told to due an assignment without any step-step instructions helps your brain think more. It’s not necessarily thinking outside the box but just play with your box.

We are all here for the reason, to get a degree. Whether its your bachelors, masters, or PhD your degree from OSU will be the first thing people have to judge you by. We all judge a book by its cover but we don’t notice that we do it. I want them to judge me as a person with character, open-mindedness and caring for those around me.

When I hear the phrase Be Orange it means to have an open-mind to new ideas, people, events, cultures, and values. If these people want to be a part of the Beaver Nation they have to commit to these values throughout their lives. Once your Orange you can’t go back. You have made a lifelong commitment to not just representing yourself but a community that has established itself. We have to strive for education and to promote higher education to the younger generation.

From class lectures, the book, and having conversations with my colleagues I learned that we shouldn’t be part of the system. We are in the situation that we are in because we follow the system. People shouldn’t have fear; we should use the fear of not knowing what’s going to happen to drive is to put a stop to it. We have to put a end the government and corporations reign of taking advantage of its citizens. It’s a shame that the cost of education drives people away. If you have commitment in what you do, you can accomplish anything. And with this knowledge it means nothing if you don’t share it with others. We all have to know how our system works and how we can change it to improve ourselves and those around us.

I have learned a lot from this class, I have learned a lot about myself and how I can be a better person. If you approach your life goals with ethics in mind you will notice how much we take for granted. We put a value on objects that really have no value. It’s sad to see so many people that are oblivious to these ideas. For that reason we have to take use all the skills that ethics gives us to spread the word and get people the information that they need. It’s time that we take back our pride and put a stop to it.

Be open-minded, Be Orange. When I hear someone say Be Orange I want open-minded to automatically pop up in their thoughts. When people read the signs around campus and look at the pictures of the students and staff. The way we show it by our knowledge and how we choose to use it. For me the correct way of using is by sharing that knowledge with others and helping them understand these new ideas. As long as they have an open-mind I believe our knowledge can lead us in the direction that we want to go. All we have to do is pass on the knowledge to those in our community so that as a whole we can be something more then just Be Orange.